Bangor Councilman Dave Houser expressed concerns over school funding and the potential for lost jobs when the plant finally closes. The Portland Generating Station employs 80 people.

"If they're going to close it, they're going to close it," Houser said with a tone of resignation Wednesday. "It will have a major impact on the school district. It will have an impact tax-wise and in disrupting families."

"I think GenOn is making a wise decision and one that future generations will certainly appreciate in terms of better health," Caldara said. "I think companies like GenOn need to take the entire web of life into account when they conduct their business."

Though
Upper Mount Bethel Township officials declined to comment, Solicitor
Ron Karasek said there's nothing positive about a business leaving the
area.

"It would appear to be a significant blow to the township's economy," Karasek said. "Anytime a business closes down and people lose jobs, that can never be good."

Former Northampton County Councilman and Upper Mount Bethel Township resident, Ron Angle,
echoed the solicitor's concerns. Angle added he hopes the plant
can be converted to natural gas-producing facility someday.

"I'm sad to see it close," Angle said. "It's provided a lot of good-paying jobs for many people through the years."

While the Glen
Gardner site has the capability to produce up to 160 megawatts of power, the 53-year old Upper Mount Bethel plant operates on a
larger platform, able to handle up to 401 megawatts. The Hunterdon County facility is slated to close in May 2015.

In addition to the sulfur-dioxide regulations, the plant would also have to meet stricter mercury standards as part of a nationwide ruling set forth by the EPA in December. The agency's ruling called for mercury emissions to be slashed by 91 percent by 2015 along with its chromium and hydrochloric
acid emissions.

Plant officials knew for months the mercury regulations
could be the ones that put the Portland Generating Station out of
business.

GenOn filed an appeal to the EPA's ruling on Jan. 6 but announced Wednesday that it would be more cost-effective instead to close the plant down rather than bring it into compliance with federal regulations.

New Jersey DEP spokesman Larry Hanja said that while the decision to close
the plant was solely GenOn's to make, the department's job is to maintain
environmental standards for the state's residents.

"Our goal has been to
reduce the pollution that comes from the plant that affects New Jersey and
Pennsylvania residents directly," Hanja said. "It's the company's choice to make
whatever decision they do."

In a conference call held Wednesday morning, GenOn's chairman and CEO Edward Muller said that while the company will invest more than $500 million to bring its facilities into compliance with regulations, GenOn, which is based out of Houston, will not look to do so for locations that would prove too costly, such as the Portland plant.

"We will invest only if we are confident that the expected return will exceed our cost of capital," Muller said.

Paula DuPont-Kidd, spokesperson for PJM Interconnection, the regional transmission organization that handles the movement of wholesale electricity, said the company is not sure yet how the loss of both the Portland plant and the Glen Gardner site will affect the region's power supply. A study will be conducted to determine if there will be a shortage, DuPont-Kidd said.

Myriam Fallon, Greenpeace field organizer, thinks GenOn's announcement was "the right decision" and said with four other Pennsylvania plants in addition to the Portland Generating Station scheduled to close, she hopes the state's residents will soon breathe cleaner air.

"It's going to be huge for our overall air quality in the state," said Fallon.